It is a Sunday afternoon as I type this post. What is different about this Sunday is that I’m typing this post from my Grandma’s house. To get to my Grandma’s house I took a train and then we drove another hour past endless cornfields to get to her town. We are talking about family stuff, watching the Ghost Whisperer, and current events. Hanging out with my Grandma reminds me of why I decided to shift to self-employment.
My Great-Aunt has also stopped by and they are talking in the way that sisters do. Gossiping, scolding, and referring to God (as they are quite religious). They are a lot of fun to listen to. I’ve also asked them to share their thoughts about money on my future money related podcast (spoiler alert).
It is absolutely fascinating to hear their thoughts on money, hard work, and the concept of being patient as you work on your money.
I’m spending time with two of the people that I love the most in life. In fact for the past year and half I’ve reveled in these quiet moments. The times when I’ve gone to coffee with my mom, helped a friend out, or just had time to manage my health and wellness.
Why
Why is that you want to pay off debt? Change your financial life or embrace lifestyle flexibility? My why is that I wan to spend time with the people that I love and care about. I want to help other people achieve financial freedom and create financial security in their life. I needed to be reconnected with my “why” because recently I’ve had a lot of doubts about my process.
Moving forward I plan on working a heck of a lot harder than I have for the past year and half. I’m a heck of a lot zoned into what my “why” because I’ve spent time living my “why.” But, before I lived my “why” I spent a lot of time thinking about what was important to me. I reflected on what I felt was missing in my life and I thought about what I wanted to add to my life.
Regular Check-Ins
Recently I decided to give myself a 6 month check in. I wanted to spend some time reflecting on what has and hasn’t worked well on my journey to debt freedom and my journey to grow my business.
What Worked
- Continuing to embrace mindful substitutions so that I didn’t experience YOLO moments. I attend free yoga and cardio classes every week, enjoy fun social events, and not go broke LOL!
- Keeping my overall expenses low. That was huge.
- Diversifying my income streams. I loved that money was coming in from different places.
- Capitalizing on moments to raise my income. I have been systematically raising my rates and embracing moments to side-hustle when appropriate.
- Having a certain earnings goal for each week. For example:
- Each week I tell myself that I need to earn X amount of dollars. I then break it down by day/hour. I’m doing this so that I’m billing (earning) a certain amount of money each week.
What Didn’t Work
- Losing track of my earnings goal strategy. There were periods of time when I just…slacked off and earned well below the amount that I was supposed to be working towards each month.
- I always try to be a month ahead on all of my expenses and the months that I am not almost always seem to coincide with a low cash flow month. It’s ridiculously stressful and totally avoidable.
- Losing focus on my debt repayment journey. What I didn’t realize was that having the amount of freedom that I’ve had in the past year and a half would potentially become a HUGE distraction from my financial journey. Terrible.
- Not having a SUPER clear business strategy to work on for the year. I ended up doing a big pivot in my business this winter and really floundered as I worked on how to move forward with my future business. Strategy is bae. Trust me, I have one now.
- Keeping My Emergency Fund well funded-I need to really, really focus on my emergency fund.
- Being reluctant
Moving Forward
I’m already working on a very specific strategy for earnings and debt repayment. It is my belief that sometimes you have to hit a significant pothole in the road to reignite the fire within. When I worked hard to prepare to take the leap to self-employment I was so focused on becoming self-employed but lost track of what happens after.
After taking my leap I felt like I floated a little bit..and maybe I needed to. Last week over at NZ Muse she talked about dealing with financial PTSD and I totally get it. I spent the past year not understanding that I was dealing with a lot of mindset issues dealing with money.
I once wrote that I wasn’t sure that I could imagine being debt-free. It was as if that was a reality that was for “other people” not for myself. What I didn’t realize was that I still dealing with some lingering mindset related issues that were affecting my ability to grow my business.
Mindset Change
I’m not sure what happened but I am in BEAST mode. It’s as if a switch has been turned in my head. I believe. I believe that I can…because I have for the past year and half. Your mindset is what will get in your way if it’s not 100%.
Everyday I tell myself:
- You will be debt free by July 2017
- You will begin earning $10,000 a month by December of this year.
- You will lose those last pesky 24 pounds in the next 3-4 months.
- I will meet the man of my dreams.
- You will help others because of the financial journey that you’re currently on and sharing.
- You’re making a difference.
And the funny thing is that I actually believe 100% what I’ve been telling myself. It only took 5+ years to believe that I’m just as worthy and capable of creating and deserving these outcomes that I want for myself.
You need to be hyper-connected to your “why.” It will drive everything that you’re doing. There will be moments when you become distracted from your why and having a system in place that allows you to examine your progress is huge.
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Another great post. I need to start looking at the things that haven’t worked and figure out ways to make it happen. I am also in beast mode right now. I need to keep this momentum up for the rest of the year.
Thanks Jason! I just think that it’s easy to drift away from why you’re trying to do what you’re doing. Sitting there with my Grandma and Great Aunt, talking to my Uncle and Aunt and just spending actual TIME with them because I have flexibility is a HUGE part of my why. Time. I wanted to reclaim my time. Now, I want to earn some serious and life-changing income. It’s time. Sending a virtual fist bump!
In the next couple of weeks, I’m getting married and I’m starting a new career. After being underemployed for most of our engagement, I am really looking forward to starting our married life together focusing on the positive side of our finances.
My “why” is to never have to go through the financial hardships we’ve recently been through. Although there’s always a chance that we’ll face hard times again, I’m going to change my mindset and do everything I can to help prevent that from happening.
I’m so excited for you!! I know that it has been a really stressful time and I’ve been rooting for you. I think that hard times always come but the key is to prepare for them during the good times. This is omething that I’ve had to learn the hard way a million times. I’ve finally learned my lesson. Mindset is HUGE.